#thranx

1987. GURPS roleplaying game supplement based on a series of Alan Dean Foster novels about an ultimately symbiotic alliance between humans and an insectoid species called Thranx. This cover painting was done by Michael Whelan for the 1982 Del Rey edition of Foster's novel NOR CRYSTAL TEARS, which describes first contact between human and Thranx from the perspective of a Thranx called Ryo (Ryozenzuzex).

my bestfriend ryo

The idea of insect men from space is now common enough to seem almost generic, but I think the timing, the similarity in names, and the description of blue colors points to the Thranx in Alan Dean Foster’s Commonwealth series as a possible inspiration for their appearance.  I believe the Thranx appeared in Foster’s first novel The Tar-Aiym Krang in 1972, five years before Arduin’s publication in 1977.

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